community


THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE


June 9-15, 2010


Page D-4


STEVE HILFINGER (left), managing partner, Foley & Lardner; Nubia Buckingham, Ashton Fisher and Renisha Bishop, first place winners in the business plan competition; Jenice Mitchell Ford, senior counsel at Foley and 1992 graduate of Martin Luther King High School; Jennifer Neumann (front, right) and David Gubini, attorneys at Foley & Lardner.


MLK students benefit from IDEA program Nearly 100 students from


Martin Luther King Jr. High School got a taste of what to expect in the business world as they competed for schol- arships offered by the Detroit office of national law firm Foley & Lardner LLP.


troit Public Schools launched Improving Detroit


Foley & Lardner and De- through


Entrepreneurship Advance- ment (IDEA) to teach students business skills and encourage higher education. Through the IDEA program, groups of students attended educational sessions, visited local col- leges, met with real life entre- preneurs and business execu- tives, and developed business plans with a mentor to guide them.


“We were looking for a way


to give back not only to the school but the community,” managing partner and IDEA mentor Steve Hilfinger said. “That was really the motivat- ing idea.”


Teams of students con-


ceived of a business that could have its own niche, developed a business plan, a timetable, a spreadsheet of accounting functions, advertising and marketing plans, and devel- oped full business plans over


the course of the year. Six final groups had the


opportunity to present their business plans to fellow class- mates, mentors and judges at the IDEA closing ceremony at Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby in Detroit on May 18.


Before the presentations,


the students enjoyed hearing from senior counsel Jenice Mitchell Ford who is also chair of the Detroit Charter Commis- sion. Ford, an MLK graduate, exhorted the students to avoid the easy temptations and tem- porary benefits they might see some others around them en- joying.


“Those quick fixes always


come with a price tag,” she said. “I want to urge my fellow Crusaders to use common sense and always stay true to themselves in order to be suc- cessful.”


She then gave examples


of how doing the right thing panned out for her.


The student presentations


covered topics such as budget, market share, partnerships, human resources, values, sales projections, profit, busi- ness law and competition.


The judges included Hilfin-


ger, Mike Callahan, the direc- tor of the internship program at the University of Michigan- Dearborn, McDonald’s busi- ness owner Jon Campbell, and Jenice Mitchell Ford, senior counsel for Foley & Lardner and alumna of Martin Luther King High School.


While the judges deliberat-


ed, students were served lunch and heard from and met with local entrepreneur Emmett Moten, Fort Shelby owner and developer, who spoke about education and ambition.


Following lunch the win-


ners were unveiled for the best business plan. “The Play- ground,” a children’s gym and playground to promote a healthy lifestyle, took first place.


“Because they are learning


business, it gave them an op- portunity to gain experience,” marketing


teacher


aspires to be an entrepre- neur. Although her group did not win the competition, she gained knowledge from the ex- perience.


“IDEA pushed me to think


further and really consider de- tails,” she said.


Julia


Hunter said. Sophomore Kayla White


JOHN PAYTON (left), president and general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Edu- cational Fund; Debo Adegbile, director of litigation at LDF; and Seth P. Waxman, former U.S. Solicitor General and partner at WilmerHale, discuss the impact of 70 years of work by LDF.


Barbershops help ‘trim’


MORTIMER CAPLIN (left), of Caplin & Drysdale; John Payton, president and general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Karen Hastie Williams, member of the LDF Board of Directors; James Nabrit III, emeritus member of LDF’s board; and Mrs. Thurgood (Cissy) Marshall gather at the Spring Luncheon marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of LDF. – Stephanie Badini photos


NAACP Legal Defense Fund celebrates 70th anniversary


John Payton, president


and general counsel of LDF, reminded the scores of attor- neys, judges and government officials at the LDF Spring Luncheon & Conversation what a different world we live in today compared to 70 years ago when LDF was founded.


Speaking at the National


Press Club, Payton said, “The statutes everybody knows and counts on today were not in existence in 1940. Voting and equal access to housing, em- ployment and public establish- ments such as restaurants, were simply not there for us. We couldn’t even meet here to have lunch.


“Clearly, LDF has made a


difference in the 70 years of its existence, and our mission today is to develop strategies that will create rights and make the precedents estab- lished over the last 70 years continue to change our coun- try into the democracy that we know it can be.”


Seth P. Waxman, former


Solicitor General of the United States and one of the nation’s leading litigators with exten- sive experience arguing cases before the Supreme Court, praised the strategic role of LDF “in making sure rights have meaning for all people.” He called LDF “the nation’s first strategic nongovernmen- tal litigator for civil rights.”


Talking about today’s Su-


preme Court, Waxman noted that the court would benefit from more diversity, and as an example, he reminded the audience that Sandra Day O’Connor was the last justice on the Supreme Court who had run for public office.


He also said, “I’m not sure


how we slid into the concept that someone who had not been a judge could not be qualified to serve on the na- tion’s highest court.”


He cited several justices who had not been judges


before appointed to the Su- preme Court, including John Marshall, Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter.


Payton advised the audi-


ence that “we have to be aware of the reality that we are in.” He told the story of when Charles Hamilton Houston, the architect of LDF, went before the Supreme Court in 1938 to argue the case Gaines v. Missouri, Justice James McReynolds turned his chair around rather than face a Black lawyer arguing a case in the Supreme Court. Houston prevailed with his argument in that case.


He also talked about to-


day’s reality: “We have seen the public discourse fractured with paranoia and increas- ing hatred. We are not post- racial.”


Debo Adegbile, director of


litigation at LDF, moderated the discussion.


male mentoring gap Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit teams up with local barbershops to recruit male mentors for minority boys


By Robin Morris If you’ve ever been to a barbershop, you


probably know that men often talk about their issues as women do in beauty salons. But some local barbershops are talking about mentoring and the need for more African-American male mentors.


Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan De-


troit (BBBSMD) is partnering with local barber- shops to recruit more African-American male mentors. Five area barbershops are scheduled to participate in the barbershop volunteer re- cruitment effort. Through this partnership, BBBSMD expects to recruit nearly 50 new men- tors.


In metropolitan Detroit, 21 percent of boys


matched to mentors in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs are African American, while only 9 percent of mentors matched through the pro- gram are African-American men. Of the ap- proximately 80 boys waiting for a mentor, the majority are African American, said Antonio Guevara, mentor recruitment manager.


“Barbershops are a sanctuary for African-


American men, especially on Saturday morn- ings. This is a perfect way to inform African- American men of the need for mentoring and why BBBSMD needs more African-American men to get involved in our community,” said Guevara, who also serves as a mentor. “I have seen the benefits of mentoring in my own mentee. He has definitely grown.”


Recognizing that traditional mentor re- cruitment efforts were attracting a very small


number of African-American males, BBBSMD is duplicating an idea that has worked at other agencies across the country. The campaign has grown from last year with one participating bar- bershop to a proposed 10 in the metropolitan Detroit area.


Guevara has good reason to advocate for


BBBSMD mentoring programs. A national study conducted by Public-Private Ventures reports that children who participate in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs are 46 percent less likely to start using drugs, 33 percent less likely to engage in violent behavior, and 52 percent less likely to skip a day of school.


“We have seen an improvement in children’s


academic performance, self-esteem, and how they express themselves,” said Guevara.


Prospective mentors must be 18 or older


and be willing to spend at least four hours per month engaged in activities with mentees. Activities can include talking, riding bikes or going to sports games, among other things. Local volunteers are matched with a child based on similar interests and location.


“We are looking for men who are consistent


and are willing to commit to at least one year of mentoring,” said Guevara. “We are not asking men to replace boys’ fathers. We are asking them to be a friend.”


For more information, contact Angelita Downing at (313) 309-9242.


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